Differences in surgical outcomes between cervical goiter and retrosternal goiter: an international, multicentric evaluation

IntroductionGoiter is a common problem in clinical practice, representing a large part of clinical evaluations for thyroid disease. It tends to grow slowly and progressively over several years, eventually occupying the thoracic inlet with its lower portion, defining the situation known as retrosternal goiter. Total thyroidectomy is a standardized procedure that represents the treatment of choice for all retrosternal goiters, but when is performed for such disease, a higher risk of postoperative morbidity is variously reported in the literature. The aims of our study were to compare the perioperative and postoperative outcomes in patients with cervical goiters and retrosternal goiters undergoing total thyroidectomy.MethodsIn our retrospective, multicentric evaluation we included 4,467 patients, divided into two groups based on the presence of retrosternal goiter (group A) or the presence of a classical cervical goiter (group B).ResultsWe found statistically significant differences in terms of transient hypoparathyroidism (19.9% in group A vs. 9.4% in group B, p